http://mmajunkie.comAbout two decades ago, Lee Mein listened to his brother tell him stories about a trip from Canada to California and the forms of martial arts he learned there.

Lee, whose son Jordan would one day become a skilled MMA fighter, liked what he heard. He traveled to California himself to learn these methods of fighting, and he wanted to bring them to Canada.

The trips resulted in a long-standing Canadian martial-arts gym, a promotion run by Lee that recently held its 49th show, and two fighting careers in the Mein family.

Jordan continues his own career on Friday at a theScore Fighting Series show. He looks to build on training that began when he was 11 years old and fighting experience he first gained when he was 14 as an MMA amateur.

Jordan is considered one of the top up-and-comers on the theScore card – one that features three main events at the Hershey Centre in Mississauga, Ontario. The show includes Mein (21-7) vs. Marius Zaromskis (14-5), UFC vets Joe Doerksen (46-15) vs. Luigi Fioravanti (22-9), and Thierry Sokoudjou (11-8) vs. Martin Desilets (11-3).

But few if any fighters in Canada or beyond have the pedigree of Jordan, who still lives in his hometown of Lethbridge, Alberta. His childhood included going to school and then heading to his father’s Canadian Martial Arts Centre, which first opened operations in the Mein basement.

Jordan also attended the Rumble in the Cage shows his father ran, which included Jordan’s own first performance in front of a crowd: a kickboxing fight at 11 years old against another local boy.

The experiences have added up to four straight wins and eight victories in his past nine fights heading into Friday’s show.

At 21, Jordan has racked up 28 professional fights, but his MMA experience started long before he actually stepped into the cage.

“I think it’s a huge advantage because I’ve been around the MMA environment for a long time,” he told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com). “I’ve been watching, listening, getting help from all kinds of people. Now it’s starting to all pay off.”

It started with kempo

Lee’s own MMA journey began with his martial arts education in California at his brother’s insistence. He studied heavily in kempo karate and jiu jitsu, and he wanted to share what he learned with others in his Canadian hometown.

In 1995, Lee founded the Canadian Martial Arts Centre in the family’s basement, bringing in fighters to train in kempo, jiu jitsu and pankration while Jordan was just getting to school age.

Those early days started a lifetime of martial-arts training for Jordan. It also created what is still unique despite the explosion of MMA – a second-generation competitor. Lee began his own professional MMA career in 2000 just as MMA was working to become more than a niche interest, and he helped the sport grow up Alberta.

Many current fighters gained interest in MMA in their late teens or early 20s through friends or the sport’s growing exposure through television. Jordan, meanwhile, has been watching it practiced up close since he was barely walking.

“I’ve basically been around a gym my whole life,” he said.

But it wasn’t always certain Jordan would pursue his own training. Growing up, he tried several other sports, including football, basketball and lacrosse. He even took time away from his father’s gym for a time.

The other pursuits, though, proved to Jordan that he wanted to be in the gym above all, and he doubly committed himself to training. He would even challenge the much older fighters in his father’s gym to grapple and spar. Later, Jordan taught youth classes.

“It wasn’t the biggest gym, but it was growing like the sport was growing,” he said. “It was a great place to grow up.”

Young but experienced

Hoping to showcase MMA beyond the classes at his gym, Lee began operating a local promotion, Rumble in the Cage.

The shows started in local bars, and it gave Jordan his first fighting opportunity. When he was 11, Jordan took on another local boy in a kickboxing match at one of the shows.

That fight helped start Jordan’s competitive fighting career that has included kickboxing tournaments, jiu-jitsu competition, amateur MMA and pro MMA. His first amateur fight came when he was 14, and he compiled a 6-1 record before turning pro.

Before long, he ran out of amateurs in the area to fight, and he turned pro in June 2006 at one of his father’s Rumble in the Cage shows. Fighting at a quick pace, Jordan started his career 3-4 but is 18-3 since.

His most recent fight came against UFC veteran Josh Burkman at a Knockout Entertainment show in April. Burkman went after Jordan like no other opponent in his career, he said, but Jordan battled to a unanimous-decision victory for a fourth straight win and increased confidence.

Now trying to expand beyond Canada, Jordan is hoping his lifetime of MMA learning will help him continue his success as he keeps attacking his opponents.

“I try to be entertaining because if not for the fans in the seats, we wouldn’t get paid,” he said. “I try to use a lot of pressure and create some action, get the fans on their feet and give them a good show.”

Award-winning newspaper reporter Kyle Nagel is the lead features
writer for MMAjunkie.com. His weekly “Fight Path” column focuses on the
circumstances that led fighters to a profession in MMA. Know a fighter
with an interesting story? Email us at news [at] mmajunkie.com.

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